35. 28 shows that the Old Testament prophets represented the Lord in respect to the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word, and that because of this they were addressed as “children of humanity.” It follows from this that by the various things they suffered and endured they represented the violence done to the literal meaning of the Word by Jews. Isaiah, for example, took the sackcloth off his waist and the sandals off his feet and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3). Similarly, Ezekiel the prophet took a barber’s razor to his head and his beard, burned a third of the hair in the middle of the city, struck a third with a sword, and scattered a third to the wind; also, he bound a few hairs in his hems and eventually threw a few into the midst of a fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

Since the prophets represented the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word (as just noted), and since the head means wisdom from the Word, the hair and the beard mean the outermost form of truth. It is because of this meaning that inflicting baldness on yourself was a sign of immense grief and being discovered to be bald was an immense disgrace. This and this alone is why the prophet shaved off his hair and his beard - to represent the state of the Jewish church in regard to the Word. This and this alone is why two she-bears tore apart forty-two boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-25)-because as just noted the prophet represented the Word, and his baldness signified the Word without an outermost meaning.

We shall see in §49 below that the Nazirites represented the Lord’s Word in its outermost forms, which is why they were commanded to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it. In Hebrew, “Nazirite” actually means “hair.” It was commanded also that the high priest was not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10) and that the fathers of their families as well were not to do so (Leviticus 21:5).

That is why they regarded baldness as such an immense disgrace, as we can tell from the following passages:

There will be baldness upon all heads, and every beard will be cut off. (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:37)

There will be shame upon all faces and baldness on all heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head was made bald and every shoulder hairless. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will put sackcloth around all waists and baldness upon every head. (Amos 8:10)

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair because of your precious children; make yourself still more bald, because they have left you and gone into exile. (Micah 1:16)

Here making yourself bald and making yourself still more bald means distorting truths of the Word in its outermost forms. Once they have been distorted, as was done by Jews, the whole Word is ruined, because the outermost forms of the Word are what it rests on and what holds it up. In fact, every word in it is a base and support for the Word’s heavenly and spiritual truths.

Since a head of hair means truth in its outermost forms, in the spiritual world everyone who trivializes the Word and distorts its literal meaning looks bald; but those who respect and love it have good-looking hair. On this, see §49 below.

760. 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my peoples, lest you participate in her sins, and lest you become recipients of her plagues." This symbolizes an exhortation from the Lord to all people, both to those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion and to those not caught up in it, to beware of embracing it in acknowledgement and affection, lest they embrace its abominations with their souls and perish.

"Another voice from heaven saying" symbolizes an exhortation from the Lord to all people, both to those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion and to those not caught up in it, because the exhortation follows, "Come out of her, my peoples," which is to say, come out all who turn to the Lord. The exhortation comes from the Lord because the voice was a voice from heaven. "Lest you participate in her sins" means, symbolically, to beware of embracing its abominations with their souls; and because the embrace takes place through acknowledgment and affection, therefore this, too, is symbolically meant. Their sins are abominations, because that is what they are called in the preceding chapter, verse 4. "Lest you become recipients of her plagues" means, symbolically, lest they perish; for plagues symbolize evils and falsities, and at the same time destruction in consequence of them. This is the symbolic meaning of plagues in nos. 657, 673, 676 above, and elsewhere.

Similar things are said in connection with Babylon in the Word in the following places:

Come out of the midst of her, My people! Deliver everyone his soul because of the fierce anger of Jehovah, lest your heart weaken and you become fearful on account of the report... (Jeremiah 51:45-46)

Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver everyone his soul, lest you be cut off on account of her iniquity... (Jeremiah 51:6)

Forsake (Babylon), and let us go everyone to his own country; for her judgment has reached to heaven and has risen up to the clouds. (Jeremiah 51:9)

Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans with the sound of singing! Proclaim this and cause it to be heard, utter it to the end of the earth: say, "Jehovah has redeemed...." (Isaiah 48:20-21; cf. Jeremiah 50:8)